The Placentia-Yorba Linda School Board voted Tuesday night to ban the teaching of critical race theory in its classrooms, the first school district in Orange County to enact such a rule.

The resolution stating that the district “will not include Critical Race Theory as a framework in any course offerings” passed by a 3-2 vote, at least momentarily ending a fiery debate about race, academic freedom and parental control of education that has embroiled the district for months.

The board — facing impassioned pleas from parents, students and others representing all sides of the issue — made some final tweaks to the resolution before passing it. One change was specifically aimed at convincing the College Board to keep its critical Advance Placement designation on some courses in the district even if certain topics cannot be discussed.

“This resolution will not alter the existing content currently taught in all certified AP and IB courses so as to not jeopardize the integrity of the coursework and risk losing certification.”

In early March, the College Board — which oversees the Advanced Placement instruction and testing used by many high school students as a way to improve their chances of getting into college — issued a  “statement of principles” in which it threatened to withdraw the AP designation from courses where required topics are banned.

Trustee Marilyn Anderson noted that AP classes haven’t disappeared in states where the teaching of critical race theory recently has been banned.

On Tuesday, Anderson was joined by trustees Leandra Blades and Shawn Youngblood in voting for the resolution.

Board President Carrie Buck and Trustee Karin Freeman voted against the ban, calling it a politically driven tool that will limit academic discussion.

“There’s no place for censorship or bans in our district,” Freeman said.

The resolution does not specify what would happen if a teacher violates the policy, prompting Freeman to ask: “What are the consequences?”

The academic concept CRT, as it’s become widely known, is a framework for teaching that looks at the role that race plays in society and how racism has been historically embedded in institutions and policies. It’s typically used in law schools and graduate-level courses.  District administrators across Orange County and elsewhere say CRT is not being taught at the K-12 level. Opponents say it is.

“To say that it’s not being taught, it’s just not true,” Blades said. Even if it’s not explicitly in the curriculum approved by the district, it’s in supplemental curriculum, she argued. “My kids have been taught CRT.”

Blades said the new rule won’t stop the teaching of important topics and historical moments related to race. Instead, she argued, it will prevent race shaming — the idea that one race is to blame for the historical oppression of another.

During the board discussion Tuesday night, Anderson doubled down on an argument she made during a recent public meeting, that “racism is a human issue…not an American issue.”

She brought up slavery during the Viking-era in Scandinavia as well as human trafficking that continues today. She also pulled out a family history book and described Danish ancestors who traveled to Brazil around 1885 and felt trapped there before escaping back to Denmark. Finally, she pulled out a fair trade chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s to note that slavery continues to exist in the cocoa bean and coffee industry.

“Human trafficking and slavery has been part of our human society since the dawn of time and continues today,” Anderson told a crowd of some 200 attendees.

Priya Shah, an adjunct professor at Cal State Fullerton who has taught CRT concepts, called Anderson’s comments offensive.

“It’s deeply insulting for Marilyn to conflate multiple historical eras of slavery as part of this conversation,” Shah, a parent in the district, said after the meeting.

“Yes, human trafficking is definitely an issue that is important and needs to be addressed,” she added. “But in this case, the issue at hand is the U.S. slave trade (and)… its unique role in the world in its influence on American institutions.”

During Wednesday night’s meeting, students and parents spoke — for and against — the resolution.

Most of the students who addressed the board opposed the resolution. Two students from Kraemer Middle School turned in a petition with more than 550 signatures, the latest petition against the ban.

“Teaching race-related topics is not about blaming any one group,” an 8th grader from Kraemer told the board. “Instead, it’s trying to understand different perspectives, especially those different from our own, so we can understand how past history affects our current society. This is critically important for us, as the next generation, to not repeat past mistakes.”

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified’s resolution is not the first in California to ban CRT but there don’t appear to be many others. Paso Robles Joint Unified School District passed a resolution last August that prohibits the teaching of critical race theory and specifies certain elements it doesn’t want to see in its schools.

Meanwhile, the Placentia-Yorba Linda School Board also heard a presentation Wednesday on a multicultural studies course proposed as a year-long elective beginning in the 2022-23 school year.  The course, created by the district’s staff, is geared to meet a state mandate that all high school students take an ethnic studies class before they graduate in 2030.